Web 2.0 - what a blast?
I have learned many new skills and have set up good teaching and learning options for the future such as:
- iGoogle: This has been great from a social and entertainment point of view for myself. I now have a personalised web page to check news, weather, science updates, famous quotes and weird and interesting facts. I intend to use some aspects of this in the classroom. For example, an interesting gadget which i discovered was called "Dark Roasted Blend". This showcases the more interesting posts on You tube and other sites. Research has shown that students respond well to weird facts and anecdotes. I have found lots of you tube clips which may help motivate students in Science. The example below shows how engineers have used the same technology used in low gravity fuel tanks to develop a low gravity drinking cup. See my blog and stay posted for more.
- Google Docs: This is a great collaborative tool and i saw many possible administrational applications such as proofreading an exam across the a teaching facaulty, storing marks off site, freeing up disk space on the server by going off site. Also, students can submit work through google docs rather than clogging up email.
- Blogger: I set up a blog http://fmilic.blogspot.com which i hope to continue with and post interesting things i find or create. Hopefully it can attract some interesting discussion over time as more people join. My next project is a class blog for my Physics and chemistry classes.
- Flickr: A good way to share photos. Perhaps in the future i could set up a class account where students can send me photos of experiments. It is also a good resource for accessing photos for visual podcasts. The clip on creative commons was both amusing and interesting. I wonder how many teachers and students are breaching copyright and whether they will ever crack down on this?
- Podcasts: I have discovered some really great podcasts such as http://www.podomatic.com/profile/meaghersphysics. He has mad some great podcasts for physics and chemistry students. I have RSS ed this site and will feature some of the more interesting ones on my blog. I intend to get my students working on podcasts as they are an interesting way to teach difficult content as they are visual.
- Glogster: A quick way to create a web page and link ideas. I don't like the look of it so i doubt i will use it. No offense glogsters!
- Delicious: Thank goodness for delicious. I can now track my extensive net surfing and collaborate with others with similar interests and ideas. I intend to give my senior students access to my Physics and Chemistry tags.
- RSS: Finally the web comes to you. This is great since i don't have time to look everywhere at once for resources. A good resource is New York Science Teacher who have an RSS function on their site.
- Social Networks: Facebook and twitter are both blocked at most schools for good reason. They are great time wasters. However, i learned that Second Life has some great science applications such as being able to observe molecules in 3D and explore human anaotomy in 3D. Hopefully this application will not be blocked as I will be exploring it further with my students.
- Wikis and Nings: These are a great substitute for myclasses which I already use. Ning seems to look better and i will be transferring some of myclasses pages over to Ning. The collaborative aspect of these programs take learning into the highest order in Bloom's Taxonomy as students can evaluate each others work and collaborate on a project.
Web 2.0 provides teachers with a challenge for the future and students with tools which maximise their learning and which take their learning up a few notches on Bloom's Ladder.
Many thanks for providing me with such a great learning opportunity.
Frank Milic
Science Coordinator
Domremy College.
Frank,
ReplyDeleteThere is some great work here in your blog. I am most interested in what successes you may have had with ICT in the past 12 months.